It was happy hour at JJ's when the roof blew off the popular Kansas City, Missouri, restaurant.

"When we got to the scene, we had a fully involved restaurant that had patrons, probably several patrons, inside at the time of the incident," said Fire Chief Paul Berardi.
A natural gas explosion leveled the eatery about 6 p.m. CT Tuesday. Two people were missing and 14 were injured.

[Updated at 7:21 p.m. ET] A federal appeals court has granted a stay of execution to convicted killer Warren Lee Hill, who was to have been put to death at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a Georgia prison, a staff attorney for the Georgia Resource Center told CNN.

Hill's lawyers had argued that his IQ of 70 meant he should be spared under a 2002 decision that barred the execution of the mentally disabled.

[Updated at 6:54 p.m. ET] The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a stay of execution for convicted murderer Warren Lee Hill, who is slated to be executed at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Jackson, Georgia.

His defenders say he should be spared because he is mentally disabled. Georgia's Supreme Court denied a request for a stay earlier today.

[Updated at 5:02 p.m. ET] The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles said it has denied the request for clemency from Warren Lee Hill. Hill is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday for the 1990 killing of Joseph Handspike.

Joe Rickey Hundley of Hayden, Idaho, turned himself in to federal officials in Idaho on Tuesday morning, the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta said.

Hundley was recently charged with assaulting a minor in the February 8 incident. According to court documents, Hundley, during a flight to Atlanta, allegedly told the baby's mother to "shut that (N-word) baby up."

He then turned around and slapped the child in the face with an open hand, according to the documents.

[Updated at 8:26 p.m. ET] In the middle of a shooting spree that killed three people and unleashed terror on Southern California motorists Tuesday morning, Ali Syed told one of his carjacking victims to walk away, police say.

According to preliminary accounts from police, Syed, 20, didn't intentionally spare another target.

Police say they believe Syed, a part-time college student, fatally shot a woman at his family's Ladera Ranch home before killing two other people - including a senior citizen executed outside his vehicle - and wounding three others as he fired a shotgun at Orange County motorists on the Costa Mesa Freeway and committed three carjackings.

The spree ended when Syed died after he turned his gun on himself as police approached on a road north of Tustin, authorities say.

The Marines general who was in line to become NATO's supreme allied commander is retiring instead.

President Barack Obama announced the retirement of U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, the former leader of coalition forces in Afghanistan, on Tuesday.

"I met with General John Allen and accepted his request to retire from the military so that he can address health issues within his family," Obama said in a statement.

Allen was caught up in a scandal over embarrassing e-mails with Tampa socialite Jill Kelley that came to the public's attention during the same investigation into an extra-marital affair that brought down former CIA Director David Petraeus. Allen was cleared of wrongdoing, and the White House initially indicated that Obama would proceed with the nomination for the supreme commander spot.

[Updated at 10:52 a.m. ET] Investigators have found evidence that Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman Adam Lanza "was obsessed" with other mass murderers, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Tuesday.

This news follows an earlier report that Lanza may have been motivated by a desire to outdo Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011, law enforcement sources told CBS Evening News.

[Posted at 1:43 a.m. ET] The shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School may have been motivated by a desire by Adam Lanza to outdo Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011, law enforcement sources told CBS Evening News.

The unnamed sources said Lanza saw himself as being in direct competition with Breivik, who killed eight with a bombing in downtown Oslo before he moved to a nearby island where he hunted down and fatally shot 69 people.

According to the sources, the 20-year-old Lanza wanted to top Breivik's death toll and went to the Connecticut school on December 14 because it was the "easiest target" and had the "largest cluster of people."

Following is a partial text of Oscar Pistorius' affidavit handed out in a South African court on Tuesday as he sought bail after being accused of murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day.

16.2 I have been informed that I am accused of having committed the offence of murder. I deny the aforesaid allegation in the strongest terms.

16.3 I am advised that I do not have to deal with the merits of the case for purposes of the bail application. However, I believe that it is appropriate to deal with the merits in this application, particularly in view of the Stateâ€™s contention that I planned to murder Reeva. Nothing can be further from the truth and I have no doubt that it is not possible for the State to present objective facts to substantiate such an allegation, as there is no substance in the allegation. I do not know on what different facts the allegation of a premeditated murder could be premised and I respectfully request the State to furnish me with such alleged facts in order to allow me to refute such allegations.

A storm system in the U.S. West is expected to pose a triple threat to the country over the next three days, eventually bringing snow to the Southwest, a blizzard to the Central Plains, and severe storms to Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, according to CNN's weather unit.

Portions of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, especially those at higher elevations, face winter storm conditions over the next 24 hours.

Then, the National Weather Service says portions of Kansas and Nebraska could see more than a foot of snow by Thursday. Meanwhile, significant ice buildup could make travel treacherous in the southern Plains. The weather service advises postponing travel until after the storm passes if possible.

Additionally, areas farther south including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, could see severe thunderstorms with possibly strong tornadoes from this weather system, CNN's weather unit says.

Later on in the week, the storm system could dump up to six inches of rain on areas from Mississippi to Georgia.

Famed Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius appears in a South African court today seeking bail after being accused of murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day. We are live blogging the appearance.Â Read the full story

[Updated at 7:55 a.m. ET] The Pistorius hearing has adjourned. The prosecutor said he needs time to process the affidavits filed today. Court will reconvene at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Pistorius will spend the night in a local jail.

[Updated at 7:40 a.m. ET] The defense is reading a statement from Steenkamp's friend Samantha Grevenstein that describes Pistorius as humble and the epitome of a true gentleman. Grevenstein said Steenkamp told her that she loved Pistorius and would have likely married him if he'd have asked.

Shiite Muslims in the Pakistani city of Quetta are refusing to bury scores of people killed in a devastating weekend bombing until authorities respond to their demands to take military action against the Sunni extremists behind the attack.

The macabre protest is an expression of the anger and frustration among Shiites in the southwestern province of Balochistan, whose capital is Quetta, over the government's failure to shield them from a series of bloody sectarian attacks in recent months.

The outlawed Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has said it carried out the attack Saturday in Quetta in which police say a suicide bomber rammed a water tanker laden with explosives into a crowded marketplace, setting off a huge blast that killed more than 80 people and wounded at least 180 others.

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